Effect of the aggregate grading on the concrete air permeability

Abstract

Great durability problems are being found in concrete structures related to the penetrability of aggressive agents through the concrete (ie. chloride penetration, sulphate attack, carbonation, freezing and thawing, and so on). Air permeability coefficient is used as an effective tool to estimate the potential durability of concrete structures due to its direct relation with the microstructure and the moisture content. This paper discusses the effect of the aggregate grading and water/cement ratio on the air permeability coefficient. An aggregate grading with more sand than coarse aggregates has resulted more beneficial from the point of view of concrete air permeability. This fact can be attributed to a denser skeleton formed by the finer aggregates. With fine aggregates, the higher water/cement ratio, the lower air permeability. However, the contrary was found with coarse aggregates. Overall, a temperature increase from 20 °C to 60 °C during preconditioning led to a Dair increase of 40-80%.